Russian and Ukrainian leaders have concluded their first official face-to-face meeting in Minsk during which they discussed Ukraine's Association Agreement with EU and the crisis and humanitarian disaster in the east of the country.

Russia will do everything to facilitate a peace process in
Ukraine, President Putin told the press following the 2-hour
talks, which he described as “positive.”

However, Russia did not and had never set forth conditions for
settling Ukraine’s internal conflict, Putin added, so a ceasefire
agreement was not discussed during the talks in the absence of
peace suggestions from Ukrainian leadership.

“We can only facilitate the creation of an environment of
trust in the course of this possible and much needed, in my
opinion, negotiation process. This is what we talked about,”
Putin added.

In the meantime a contact group on the implementation of
Ukraine's Association Agreement with the EU must resume its work
as soon as possible to formulate final conditions for the free
trade zone, Putin said.

“Not all of our arguments are accepted by our colleagues, but
at least we were heard and we have agreed to intensify the
exchange of views, and try to find some solutions,” Putin
said, adding that in the absence of a final agreement Russia will
have to “take measures” to protect its economy. The
sides have also agreed that a resumption of gas and energy talks
is urgently needed, the Russian president said.

President Poroshenko meanwhile quickly left the building after
the talks, giving no comment to the press, and headed to the
Ukrainian embassy in Minsk. There he has held a ‘wrap-up meeting’
with the head of European diplomacy, Catherine Ashton, the
Presidential press service said.

Ukraine has reached an agreement with Russia to start
consultations between the border guards and the general staff of
the two states in order to produce initial conditions for
reaching a settlement in east Ukraine, Poroshenko told the press
afterwards. Poroshenko also said that a peace plan will be
prepared soon for a speedy cessation of hostilities.

"A roadmap will be prepared in order to achieve as soon as
possible a ceasefire regime which absolutely must be bilateral in
character," Poroshenko said in a statement.

The talks between Putin and Poroshenko in Minsk marked the first
time the two had a formal meeting after the Ukrainian leader
secured his office in June. Both leaders had met briefly on the
sidelines of the Normandy landing celebrations in June in the
company of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President
Francois Hollande. However both Poroshenko and Putin have engaged
in telephone discussions in the past over the Ukrainian crisis.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko sat down for
bilateral talks at around 6pm GMT, following hours of discussions
between the Eurasian Customs Union, the EU and Ukraine in the
light of the signing of the association agreement with the EU by
Kiev.

The multilateral talks in the Belarussian capital were cordial
and positive, said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, in
the meantime emphasizing the need for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

“It was cordial but positive. There was a sense in which the
onus was on everyone to see if they could do their best to try to
resolve this,” Ashton told reporters.

“We all wanted a breakthrough,” President of Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko said in his closing remarks following the
multilateral talks.

“But the very fact of holding the meeting today is already a
success, undoubtedly,” he said. "The talks were
difficult. The sides' positions differ, sometimes
fundamentally... Everybody agreed on the need to de-escalate and
free captives.”

A new meeting on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict may
take place in Minsk on Wednesday, Lukashenko added.

Ukraine has been engulfed in civil war since April, when Kiev’s
military began its crackdown on the southeast of the country
after the people in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to
recognize the new coup-imposed authorities.

According to the United Nations’ latest estimates released, over
2,249 people have so far been killed and over 6,033 wounded in
the fighting in eastern Ukraine. The number of internally
displaced Ukrainians has reached 190,000, with another 207,000
finding refuge in Russia, the UN said.